A ship's a ship mate
by Aly Smith
Summary: Mary Norington is a crew member under the command of the cruel pirate leader, captain Hunter. one day while hunter is feeding men to the kraken, a blue box appears on deck and the man inside is put in danger. Mary finds herself compelled to save the Doc. without knowing why and the Doc is confused as to how she can fly the TARDIS. Who is Mary Norington?


Mary Norington stood high in the crows nest peering bored through her trusty spyglass. She had been standing up there for ages and spotted nothing but clear blue water ahead. She removed the spyglass from her aching eyes and sighed deeply. She turned toward the opposite direction to watch the action on deck. She rested her elbow on the railing and her cheek in her palm as a small issue unfolded and became more of a live action drama.

"So you would like to vote yer self a new captain would ye?" captain Hunter asked appalled.

"Aye!" replied a tall burly sailor below. Mary recognized him as one of the deckhands. She smiled at the notion of such a no-name crewman standing up to the captain.

"And what be yer reasons man?" The captain asked as the crew began to crowd the scene.

"We have been four months at sea, and have changed course six times. Not once yet have we come across any gold captain, and I think I speak for all the men when I say that doesn't sit well! You can't seem to make up your mind and its costing all of us time and gold!"

Captain Hunter laughed his rough sailor's laugh and gave the deckhand a cold look. "And you suppose that the solution would be electing a new captain?"

"Aye!"

Captain Hunter gave a slight nod and the two burliest men in the crew, the captains second and third in command, who the deckhand roughly from behind; the rest of the crew became dead silent. The only sound that could be heard was the wind whipping through the sails.

"Well I'm sorry mate, but this is no democracy." the captain growled as the two men restraining the deckhand smiled evilly. "We are out at sea you bilge-rat, and here at sea we live by pirate law. Talk like that has you marked as a mutineer, and you know what we pirates do to mutineers..." The captain laughed cruelly "The punishment for mutiny is death at sea." The deckhand started to look a little pale as he realized what his rash actions were going to cost him.

"To the plank with ye!"

The burly men dragged the deckhand kicking and screaming to the plank and the rest of the men cheered and held their swords above their heads.

Mary shook her head and couldn't help but think of the hypocrisy of it all. The crew feared the captain more than anything, yet they opened their mouths when ever a small thing happened to bug them, and thus got themselves into trouble. They also feared death terribly, yet they loved to watch each other die. Mary sighed and just attributed it to the fact that they were men. As the deckhand walked slowly across the thin stretch of wood between life and death, Mary tried to avert her eyes; She couldn't possibly watch what happened next.

"Maybe next time you will think before ye decide to open yer mouth, for the only thing that awaits a good for nothing mutineer is an eternity of hell in the belly of the beast!" Hunter shot his pistol, and the bullet whizzed past the deckhand's ear which startled him and caused him to fall off the plank and plunge into the icy black water below. The deckhand's head bobbed up from the briny sea and started to shout and beg for a rope. He promised to never open his big mouth again and even went as far as to say he would allow the captain to cut out his tongue after he swore a life time of service before the mast; the reality of the situation had begun to set in. It was far too late for him though, his scent was already in the water, and if the monster didn't take him it would take the whole ship instead.

The man continued to beg and attempt to bargain for his life as the ship drifted farther and farther away; the water below him became impossibly black. A horrible sense of doom filled the air and the terrified deckhand peered down at the water beneath him, beginning to tremble uncontrollably. The man then started to franticly swim for his life. One by one giant,slimy,barbed tentacles shot out of the water and reached out toward the deckhand. He screamed in horror as one of the them gsnatched him by the leg, the barbs tearing at his flesh, and flung him up in the air. The barbs continued to tare at his skin, turning him into a bloody mess. The men back on the deck laughed and laughed while the creature prolonged the poor deckhand's fate.

Then, suddenly,above all the chaos on deck and the roar of the kraken, Mary heard a strange sound. It was like a rumble, but at the same time a wheeze, and was like nothing she had ever heard before. Using her spyglass she curiously gazed around the deck below. She heard a loud thump come from her left and she turned to discover a blue box that had appeared behind the mainmast. She wiped the lens of her spy glass on her cotton shirt, as to make sure she wasn't seeing things. When she peered back through it, she noticed a man had stepped out of the blue box and onto the deck. He was tall and handsome with dark eyes. He was wearing a brown jacket and pants with strange auburn coloured ropes attached to them, and a white button down shirt. He was clean shaven with dark hair that could only be described as "flippy". Mary also noticed that the man was wearing a bow around his neck and a funny red hat with a tassel. She couldn't help but to think to herself how funny the man looked and decided to let her curiosity get the better of her. She cautiously climbed down the rope latter to the deck below, in hopes of holding an engaging conversation with the daft looking stranger.

Unfortunately the stars were not in her nor the stranger's favor, for when she reached the bottom of the latter, she turned to find the whole crew-including the captain-staring at her.

"Is there a problem Thomas?" Hunter asked in a gruff and unforgiving voice.

"No captain." She replied timidly.

"Have you spotted sails on the horizon boy?!"

"No..."

"Then what're ye doing down here lad!"

"I...I was just...curious...about the kraken..." She lied.

"Well boy, let me give you some advice. Curiosity killed the cat! Now get back up there and keep your eyes on that horizon or the kraken will have you next!" Mary's heart stopped. Hunter turned to the rest of the crew "And that goes for all of you bilge-rats! Get back to work!"

"Aye!" They shouted and scrambled back to their places. Mary stood frozen with fear, the last thing she wanted was to be thrown to the kraken.

"Now that wasn't very nice!" came a strange voice. The stranger's head peeked out from around the mainmast and Mary smiled. Something about seeing his face made her feel happier, safer. Although she had never met the man before, and this was only the first time she had ever heard him speak, there was an air about him that made her want to trust him.

The Captain spun around to face the stranger, and as he stared into the newcomer's cool and calm face, he became very hostile.

"Threatening to throw a man to the kraken is a crime against humanity in and of it's self, but threatening to throw a child to the kraken is a good way to get on my bad side, and trust me when I say you don't want to be on my bad side."

" Who the hell are you?" The captain demanded.

"Oh me? I'm the Doctor!"

"Doctor? Doctor Who?"

The Doctor smiled and sort of laughed to himself "Just the Doctor thanks...or should I say, savvy?But as I was saying, death by kraken should be outlawed. Isn't throwing your own man to the kraken against pirate code anyway?"

"The code is more of guidelines than an actual set of rules."

"That doesn't matter! It takes literally and eternity for the stomach acid of a kraken to break down human flesh. That man it just ate will spend the rest of forever being slowly burned alive by acid, unable to die. You just sentenced that man to spend the rest of an eternity in hell!"

"That be the point."

The stranger got suddenly furious. "Well then, let me tell you that that does not sit well with me. No man should have to suffer that way no matter what he did wrong and I am telling you..." He got right up in the captain's face and shouted "It stops here!"

The captain laughed aloud.

"You think I'm kidding, but it's one of those things...like...genocide! Like I use to tell people, 'Look up the word genocide in the dictionary, and you will find a big old picture of me. The caption will read: Over my dead body!' Although the situation is different, the same principles apply. You want to throw this child to the Kraken, then you have to get through me first."

The captain turned bright red. He snapped his fingers and the same two burly men who restrained the deckhand came up behind the Doctor and grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Look, you scallywag, I don't know who you are or how you got on board me ship, but ye can't tell me how to run me own crew. Ye seem to know so much about Kraken. So then, how about meeting one up close and personal. To the plank with ye!" All the crew came rushing over and cheered once more. Two executions in one day was the most excitement they had seen in the past four months.

As the two men dragged the Doctor toward the plank, Mary called out "NO!"

Everyone froze. They all turned to look at her with cold and amused eyes. Perhaps it was going to be three executions today. Mary stood frozen with fear as the captain sauntered menacingly towards her, his peg leg making a hollow clicking on the hard, wooden deck as he approached. He looked at her with a horrid grin, all 16 of his yellow rotted teeth showing; this was the first time Mary had ever seen him smile like that. He stopped no more than a foot away from her, and he stooped to put his face right into hers.

"What was that you said boy?" he growled at her.

As Mary stood there with his rank, and heavily rum scented breath blowing in her face she became more defiant. She suddenly felt the need to protect this man, though she couldn't understand why. "No." She repeated firmly, and stared the captain down.

"Verry well then." The captain all but whispered and back handed her across the face.

She hit the deck hard,and bumped her head. She laid there a moment stunned as the crew laughed around her and the captain grinned even bigger. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the Doctor try and struggle free of the two burly sailors, but he was far too scrawny to succeed. As the initial shock of the event finally started to wear off, Mary slowly sat up and raised her hand to her cheek. When she looked down at it a mo later, she noticed that it was covered in blood.

Something inside her ignited. Mary slowly rose to her feet and met the captain's eyes. She plucked off her hat and threw it to the ground, causing her soft, long, brown curls to unfurl behind her and blow gently in the wind. The crew gasped and Mary Smiled.

"'Ello captain Hunter, I'm Mary Norington, and I'm here to teach you a lesson about hitting girls, since your mother obviously didn't do so."

She drew her sword from her belt and thrust it toward the captain. That was all it took before the whole crew was after her. She blocked every blow and was successful with nearly every thrust. Within a matter of seconds disabled all of the men who were terrible at hand to hand combat, and a handful of the better. Out of all sixty men on board the ship, she was clearly the best fighter. In the confusion and chaos Mary had caused, she noticed the two men restraining the Doctor had forgotten all about him; though, that gave him no chance to escape, for he was caught in the middle of the crowd of fighting pirates.

After several minutes of fighting, Mary began to feel exhausted and decided to retreat to the crows nest for a moment's rest; By now, she had everyone so confused that crew members were fighting crew members. She quickly climbed to the top of the rope latter and peered down at the chaos below. It was only a moment before someone realized that she was not on the deck anymore and the whole crew began to hunt her down. She smiled down at all the trouble she had caused and glanced over at the Doctor. He was standing off to the side with a shiny silver key in his hand. He winked at her and nodded his head toward the blue box. She smiled even wider.

Then, suddenly, down below spotted her. "There she is!" another no name deckhand called out, and the whole crew began scrambling up the rope ladder. Mary grabbed one of the ropes attached to the sails and leaped from the crows nest. She swooped down onto the deck George of the Jungle style, and landed softly on her feet. Thankfully it was in her female nature to be a lot less clumsy then the rest of the crew, who had just now realized what had happened. Mary plucked the key from the Doctor's hand, and sprinted toward the TARDIS with him at her heels. She quickly, with shaky hands unlocked the door and stepped inside with the Doctor.

"Welcome to the TARDIS" he grinned and gestured grandly.

Mary shrugged. "I've seen bigger." then she turned and stood in the doorway of the still open door and called out to the crew. "Listen up boys! I can garuntee, this will always be the day that you remember as the day you almost caught Mary..." and she was caught off by a giant wave that came over the side of the ship and drenched her. Soaked and ticked, Mary closed her eyes and slammed the door in the face of the entire crew.

"How dreadfully anticlimactic." The Doctor Mumbled to himself as the pirates started to pound on the TARDIS door.

Mary sprinted across the room and up to the giant console at the centre, where she started flipping switches, pulling leavers, and spinning things. She had no idea how she knew what she was doing but she did, and she was completely confident that she was doing it right. Soon the blue box wheezed and rumbled to life, and took off into time and space. Mary Norington had made her daring escape.

As she sagged back into the captain's chair of the ship, she noticed the Doctor staring at her with his mouth agape.

"what?" she asked confused.

"How did you know how to fly this?" The Doctor's face was pale and confused.

Mary shrugged as she stood up. " A ship's a ship mate. Now you got a place can change?"

"...Yeah...the wardrobe is straight back." The Doctor replied distantly.

"Thanks."

Mary wandered into the wardrobe and changed out of her wet clothes. When she returned she was wearing a night dress and slippers. She once again got a strange look from the Doctor.

"Iv'e had an exhausting escape, and I passed a bedroom on the way to the wordrobe. I figured you wouldn't mind if I took a quick nap." she explained as he tossed her wet clothes over one of the many railings in the main control room.

"...yeah...no problem." Was all the Doctor could respond.

Mary sauntered her way into the bedroom and tucked herself in and fell instantly asleep.

Meanwhile in the control room, something gold and shiny fell from the pocket of Mary's drenched Jacket.

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Pirates." he mumbled to himself.

As he crossed the room to investigate he noticed that the item that had fallen from her pocket was not a period item. He picked it up, and held it in the palm of his hand. It was a gold pocket watch.

"How on Earth did you get this?"

He turned it over in his hand and gasped, the entire front cover was inscribed in Galifreian. A tear came to his eye as he read the name inscribed...Jenny.


End file.
